Celebrity Coverage
The first day of the Roots 2024 picnic included food, fun and a phenomenal performance by legendary artists
Photo credit: Marcus McDonald
This past weekend, The Legendary Roots Crew hosted and co-founded the largest edition of Roots Picnic to this point at The Mann in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. The event, which gathered over 60,000 participants throughout the weekend, exceeded all expectations and is one of the most anticipated festivals in the city of brotherly love.
Before the music began, the sold-out festivities began on Friday, May 31, with the return of the second annual Roots Picnic Con at the Fillmore Philadelphia. The conference included panel discussions from The Recording Academy, Cannabis Workers Union, Live Nation, Phor Essentials and featured panelists resembling Questlove, Marsha Ambrosius and many others. That evening, Black Thought returned together with his stand-up special “Black Thought Presents Delirious” at Punchline Philly, which featured surprise appearances from comedians from across the country.
Additional events leading as much as the concert series included Houses of Luv & Philly Black Pride’s inaugural Roots Picnic LGBTQ+ Pride Party at the Foundry on Thursday, May 30, and the Roots Picnic Kickoff Party at the Brooklyn Bowl the following evening.

On June 1, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro presented The Roots with a proclamation recognizing their contributions to the arts, arts education and the economy of the City of Philadelphia. The picnic began around 1 p.m. and featured plenty of amazing performances throughout the three stages. The Centennial Stage hosted live acts and podcasts throughout the day, while the Presser Stage featured performances by October London, Smino and Sexxy Red.
Saturday featured an unprecedented mix of hip-hop and R&B on the Fairmount Stage, where audiences saw J.Period, Black Thought, Method Man and Redman welcome FERG, Amir Ali, ReeCee, E.Ness, Freeway and Common to stage as special guests during the joint J. Period Live Mixtape set. The-Dream then performed some of his hits resembling “Fancy”, “I Luv Your Girl” and “Falsetto”. Later in the evening, Nas lit up the stage with songs from his 1994 debut album Illmatic and welcomed Ghostface Killah to the stage for his electrifying performance.

To close out the night, the influential Jill Scott, coming off the heels of a massive twentieth anniversary tour celebrating the release of her groundbreaking debut album, sang some of her biggest hits and made a surprise debut of her latest song “Norf Philly” featuring Tierra Whack.
In addition to the phenomenal music selection, Roots Picnic also showcased some of the area’s best cuisine. Doordash Food Village featured places like Bake ‘N Bacon, Down North Pizza, Oh Brother Philly, Federal Donuts & Chicken and many more.

In between sets, attendees could also experience elegant activations from brands resembling Stella Artois, Smirnoff Ice, Dunkin’ Donuts and Jack Daniels, amongst others. The Chase Sapphire Lounge was extremely popular, and Grand Marnier celebrated the start of summer with an immersive festival experience where guests enjoyed live performances, cooling stations, photo ops and the company’s signature cocktail, the Grand Margarita.
After the huge success of the first day of Roots Picnic, fans were looking forward to Sunday’s event, which featured inspiring performances from local legends and era-defining artists.
Celebrity Coverage
Janet Jackson to receive the ICON Award at 2025 American Music Awards – Essence
Photo: Solaiman Fazel
Janet Jackson gets his long flowers. The global Superglaw and the cultural pioneer will receive the prestigious icon award in 2025 American Music AwardsLive on Monday, May 26. Honor, who recognizes the artist, whose occupation has an indelible influence on music and culture popular around the world, comes when Jackson celebrates five quite various years in the industry.
In addition to accepting the prize, Jackson will go to the stage of his first television performance since 2018. The moment means a historical return for the 11-fold AMA winner, who stays one amongst the most influential characters in the history of music. This yr’s AMA, led by Jennifer Lopez, is possibly going to be going to be going to be broadcast live to CBS and stream to Paramount+, transmitting from the coast to the newly opened Fontainebleau Las Vegas center.
The influence of Jackson not only continues – it develops. Only this yr her single “Someone to Call To My Lover” from 2001 became popular in social media, causing the renovated success of the chart inside twenty years after its release. According to the luminrate, the song shot in the third place on the chart of R&B digital songs and noticed a surprising increase of 1,400% in American streams on demand. This moment is one amongst the many willing of her remaining force, proving that Janet’s heritage still resonates with old and latest fans.
Before appearing at Ama, Jackson launched his residence in Las Vegas, with six concert events at the Resorts World Theater from May 21 to May 31. The residence takes place after its record route in 2023, which became the best -earning occupation, covering 36 dates sold out and widespread critical recognition.
The numbers of her careers speak for themselves. With over 180 million records sold around the world, Jackson occupies the best -selling artists in history. It has five Grammy awards, two Emmy, Golden Globe and dozens of AMA, Billboard and MTV awards. Her third album herself redefined pop music and beat the albums, on this primary album of a woman who generated the five best 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits. This heritage lasted, which stays the only album that provided the seven best singles, and, which added six more 10.
After receiving the induction of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019, the Janet Artist Gniston entered the next Renaissance. Her residence “Metamorphosis” Las Vegas established money records, her self -proclaimed document attracted 20 million viewers in the first week, and her fashion partnerships, including recent cooperation with Thom Browne, still maintains her in the latest style.
After his performance, Ama Jackson will return to World Resorts Stage for 3 additional programs 28, 30 and 31 May. Tickets for these performances at the moment are on sale via Ticketmaster.
As the vote of fans for this yr’s awards, the 2025 American Music Awards guarantees the night to remember – one which honors the past, rejoice the present and distinguishes a living legend, which craftsmanship continues to be developing.
Celebrity Coverage
Tara Davis -woodhall on her hair trip and showing on a representation of textures with a pigeon – the essence
Patrick Khachfe/Getty Images
The average American publishes 4.8 hours a day on their phone. Meanwhile, 90 percent of black people live in a household with smartphones, i.e. Six percent of the higher than the total US population. But despite almost 4,000 emoji coded in our phone, most of the black ones have Difficulties to get hold of emoji which exactly represent our hair.
Calling for change, athletes Tara Davis-Woodhall He works with #CodemyCrown, a Crown Coalition campaign led by Dove and Rise365 To put pressure on the Unicode consortium to include emoji depicting Afros, Braids, Cornrows and Locs. Like the game industry, Black Beauty is poorly represented by technology with such platforms Idor And my leading integration of the crown with the digital world.
“8 out of 10 black people in the USA fights to find Emoji that reflect their hairstyle,” says Davis-Woodhall. “I wasn’t surprised, just disappointed.” Wearing hair relaxed to College, the athlete says that her relationship with her hair was about assimilation, which is capable of likely be attributed to the lack of representation.
“Growing up in white society, black hair is too much work and is not seen so beautifully,” he says. “I’ve always tried to straighten my hair.” But when she was natural in college, she understood the beauty in our texture of the hair. In March, for the first time, she published Afro on Instagram along with a blow and braids, all of which could thoroughly be styles absent in the Emoji Apple library.
Nowadays, “I change hairstyles every month,” he says, now leaning to sewing. However, he says that finding a routine will likely be like finding emoji: harder than it should. “I’m trying to protect my omission as much as possible,” he says. “In fact, this is impossible when you do so many shoots and try to keep your hair as tame as possible.”
Banking about deep treatments and oils, finding time in her tight schedule to take care of her hair is an act of self -care. This and opening pores on her skin and scalp in a long, hot bath at night. “I work on the skin, I work on the skin of the body, making sure that I remain moisturized and exfoliated,” he says. “I give myself a little more time because I feel that I give [most of my] Time for other people. “
Now, back to the track season in full bloom, finding styles which could withstand blood, sweat and tears of an Olympic athlete is one other obstacle. But one thing is for certain, he hopes that Emoji represents the emotions he puts in each. “The beauty of our hair is that you can have options and wear everything you mean.”
Celebrity Coverage
The most elegant moments of beautiful Billie Holiday – essence
William Gottlieb/Redferns
When Billie Holiday entered the stage, not only her voice turned her head – it was her presence. Known as Lady Day, she embodied the timeless type of beauty that cannot be reproduced – only worship. More than an icon of jazz, Holiday was a plan: her appearance, its mastery and its unrestricted elegance are still inspired by generations of black women who understand that beauty concerns the soul, as in style.
In the Nineteen Forties, the singer was known for wearing a deep, dark lipstick, which made her hair decorated with gardenia relatively more. Her eyebrows have contained throughout the least times been thrown out and eyelashes? Flirts, feathery and unforgettable. Sometimes she liked to take care of cool and canopy with packaging, contained throughout the least times emanating this sort of glam. In 1939, she added to the photo session, gardens in full bloom-nevertheless it surely’s eyelashes and it is a soft look, to which we’re still attracted.
Quickly until 1947, when the legend hit the stage on the Downbeat Club Manhattan. No foundation, no powder – just daring lipstick, natural leather and star power.
Until 1957, Billie modified every little thing to her performance to Newport Jazz Festival, leaving Gardenias behind, but keeping a characteristic red lip. And because of all this she never avoided the camera. New head shots, latest corners – because my love is contained throughout the least times in style.
In honor of the late icon we rejoice some of the most unforgettable moments of beauty Billie Holiday.























